considerable modification; in fact," said he, with some little confusion,
"quite a thorough revolution. I don't, think we have quite done our duty by
these people. Well, well, we must make the future atone for the past."

Miss Cass had entered upon her project with all the enthusiasm of youth,
and being anxious that her class, "in point of numbers," should make a
presentable appearance, had drafted into it no less a person than Aunt
Comfort.

Aunt Comfort was a personage of great importance in the little village of
Warmouth, and one whose services were called into requisition on almost
every great domestic occasion.

At births she frequently officiated, and few young mothers thought
themselves entirely safe if the black good-humoured face of Aunt Comfort
was not to be seen at their bedside. She had a hand in the compounding of
almost every bridecake, and had been known to often leave houses of
feasting, to prepare weary earth-worn travellers for their final place of
rest. Every one knew, and all liked her, and no one was more welcome at the
houses of the good people of Warmouth than Aunt Comfort.

But whilst rendering her all due praise for her domestic acquirements,
justice compels us to remark that Aunt Comfort was not a literary
character. She could get up a shirt to perfection, and made irreproachable
chowder, but she was not a woman of letters. In fact, she had arrived at
maturity at a time when negroes and books seldom came in familiar contact;
and if the truth must be told, she cared very little about the latter. "But
jist to 'blege Miss Cass," she consented to attend her class, averring as
she did so, "that she didn't 'spect she was gwine to larn nothin' when she
got thar."